tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402852.post8591976380030617541..comments2015-03-03T16:03:23.348+10:00Comments on The NXT STEP is EV3 - LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Blog: NXTilicious XmasJames Floyd Kelly (Jim)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13876934942928389738noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402852.post-68357064033553106952008-01-02T04:41:00.000+10:002008-01-02T04:41:00.000+10:00Thanks for the comments David.My 11 month baby has...Thanks for the comments David.<BR/><BR/>My 11 month baby has gone past the teething stage - so she no longer suck on Lego pieces!<BR/><BR/>But she has an annoying habit of wanting to tip neatly sorted toolboxes on the floor and then hiding her favourite pieces inside peoples shoes.BlueToothKiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05509100068326737423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402852.post-74644634219611657562008-01-02T00:04:00.000+10:002008-01-02T00:04:00.000+10:00BlueToothKiwi: How did you get your 11mth old to s...BlueToothKiwi: How did you get your 11mth old to stand by rocking on a horse w/ all those LEGO pieces about? My 11mth old loves nothing more than to have her hands in a box of LEGOs. She likes sucking on the small pieces ... constant vigilance required ...<BR/><BR/>If I could have gotten my grubby little hands on a Motorized Bulldozer for Christmas I would have...but I have ordered some PF motors and accessories.Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10359952897696271441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402852.post-56045623099873002542007-12-31T07:38:00.000+10:002007-12-31T07:38:00.000+10:00HHmm all of our regular Technic kits and regular L...HHmm all of our regular Technic kits and regular LEGO kits are in one big bin that sorts the pieces by size. Also, the boys hate taking anything apart so various LEGO creations are all about the house and basement. I wonder if I should take it all and organize into bins.....<BR/><BR/>So far I've managed to keep NXT kit out of the general pile. My son is just 7yrs old so we build the models from books quite a bit. We'll be starting the Mayan Adventure soon and it's nice to know where all the NXT kit pieces are. <BR/><BR/>Now with a 2nd kit...what to do what to do....perhaps keep the brick, motors, and sensors together for each kid and put everything else in a common NXT kit?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402852.post-57326900593429349332007-12-30T06:52:00.000+10:002007-12-30T06:52:00.000+10:00Thank you for all your comments.Regarding your que...Thank you for all your comments.<BR/><BR/>Regarding your question, LEGOMom - I am not sure what the best strategy is - I am relatively new to LEGO and MINDSTORMS - my children got their first NXT / TECHNIC kit this time last year -- we started off with one set (Tractor) .. then the then the bulldozer ... and now we have about 4 or 5 TECHNIC sets and four NXT's and some extra PF motors and stuff.<BR/><BR/>Regarding organising stuff - my kids don’t like following instructions - they prefer to design / create their own. This often means mixing and matching elements from different TECHNIC sets.<BR/><BR/>So apart from the NXT, motors and the sensors (which are personal to the kids), every thing else stays in a giant centralised store, neatly categorised. It seems to work pretty well for us. <BR/><BR/>TimBlueToothKiwihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05509100068326737423noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402852.post-58101609334615585692007-12-29T03:08:00.000+10:002007-12-29T03:08:00.000+10:00I got(bought myself) my first NXT set for Christma...I got(bought myself) my first NXT set for Christmas. This has caused lots of impatience as I actually ordered it a month or two ago, then decided I should have it be a Christmas gift. Thankfully those in my family who believe in Santa are the only ones who completely understand cost, so I can explain why my gift was more expensive...<BR/><BR/>First I built the "start here" robot, kind of boring, then attached all of the sensors to the chassis and started to learn how to write programs for it.<BR/><BR/>I've worked with software similar to lab view before (although not robotics related), but I started building my own bot from scratch, and took it apart half way through because of my utter failure at studless building. It probably has something to do with my complete separation from the Lego world for two or three years. I honestly didn't know that NXT existed when I started hunting for a Mindstorms kit.<BR/><BR/>Ah well, practice makes perfect. And I wish the rest of my family cared for Lego or robotics at all, because I wouldn't mind access to a couple thousand more parts.<BR/><BR/>Well, I'm off to make another attempt at building something, happy New Year everyone!Tankgunkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03662680372407814514noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402852.post-66299219503388489222007-12-29T02:07:00.000+10:002007-12-29T02:07:00.000+10:00LEGOmom,Yes I believe the issues are similar.. at ...LEGOmom,<BR/>Yes I believe the issues are similar.. at least in my case.<BR/><BR/>My FLL team (my 9 yr old son + 8 of his classmates meet regularly throughout the year. The competition is just one stopping point along the way. I doubt that my decision to combine the sets will help them win an FLL event. It may actually hinder them. My focus now is keeping them interested in building robots and I think that the way I've organized the pieces may provide a better environment..... Yes, building multiple robots may be an issue if one group has taken too many of the pieces... so we'll have to see how that pans out. At least I don't have to worry about keeping the sets separate which can be an impossible task at times.<BR/><BR/>I'll also be running a couple of camps this summer using 8 nxt edu base kits which I'll be attempting to keep separate... (It's a real nightmare)<BR/><BR/>Whether you decide to keep them separate or not, I still think it is a good idea to reorganize the pieces into plano boxes. In the <A HREF="http://thenxtstep.com/repository/planos/" REL="nofollow">pictures that I provided</A> I had made an additional attempt to categorize the boxes by type. i.e. axles, pins, bushings and connectors.<BR/><BR/>DavidDavid Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05703466551179769362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402852.post-36266564926719628262007-12-29T01:12:00.000+10:002007-12-29T01:12:00.000+10:00I was thinking from the standpoint of family harmo...I was thinking from the standpoint of family harmony lol and not FLL but I suppose the issues are similar. I'm trying to decide if it's best to keep each boy's kit separate or to combine them.<BR/><BR/>legomomAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402852.post-14211543656358363542007-12-28T13:37:00.000+10:002007-12-28T13:37:00.000+10:00"Bluetoothkiwi: how do you organize your 4 NXT set..."Bluetoothkiwi: how do you organize your 4 NXT sets?"<BR/>I'd also like to here opinions on this from btk and others.<BR/><BR/>I recently consolidated 4 NXT retail kits into plano boxes. <BR/><BR/>See - http://thenxtstep.com/repository/planos/<BR/><BR/>I'm going to let my FLL team work off this configuration for next year and hope that they become better builders despite any conflicts that may arise by not separating the kits. <BR/><BR/>During this season the kids had 3 NXT Edu base + 3 resource kits and they were encouraged to create three identical chassis so they could concurrently test their mission attachments on any of the three compatible chassis.<BR/><BR/>DavidDavid Levyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05703466551179769362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402852.post-48460945042045243522007-12-28T07:06:00.000+10:002007-12-28T07:06:00.000+10:00Ouch, my younger kid (9year old boy) asked my spec...Ouch, my younger kid (9year old boy) asked my specificly not to give any more LEGO until he has played at least once with everything we already have...<BR/>Seemed like a sensible idea as our collection of sets and pieces will probably keep him busy for some years to come.<BR/>So only other things this year.PTPnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402852.post-68800299701725587962007-12-28T02:52:00.000+10:002007-12-28T02:52:00.000+10:00Bluetoothkiwi: how do you organize your 4 NXT sets...Bluetoothkiwi: how do you organize your 4 NXT sets? Do you keep each set separate or do you combine all the sets?<BR/><BR/>legomomAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402852.post-1008257106168438142007-12-27T08:28:00.000+10:002007-12-27T08:28:00.000+10:00Today all those parts are now for pre order (PF). ...Today all those parts are now for pre order (PF). I just made a order of Xmotors and s motors the whole shabang, buch of wire too.<BR/><BR/>The bad Bulldozer is gone, guess not to be seen for a price like we had. Im seeing them go for 300$ now to bad its like scalping lego these days. But hey at least ALL PF parts are being sold from lego.. we need a new rotation sensor now for NXT with better resolution than the old RIS ones! out of the bad some good news.222Docnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21402852.post-8255934720393997932007-12-27T07:46:00.000+10:002007-12-27T07:46:00.000+10:00I'm coming to your house next Christmas! We added ...I'm coming to your house next Christmas! We added a second NXT robot to our family as well as some Technic cranes (small one) and bulldozer (small one) and a Transformer 500pc contraption. I also got one Education Resource kits but now I need to buy a second one since we have two NXT kits. My 7yr old, 4yr old and I will now be able to have SUMO contests and ROBO soccer. <BR/><BR/>HOw did you get XL and regular motors? I've been searching for the Technic Bulldozer kit for a good price but everywhere was out of them. Even LEGO SHop at home said it is unavailable in the US. I already have a regular motor and battery box from my LEGO Science and Tech kit and would like to add the receiver and IRsensor.<BR/><BR/>LEGOmomAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com